My first contact with endurance sports was at the tender age of 14 when I joined a local mountain bike club. Brutal rides across rugged, hilly terrain, lasting several hours at times—this was for me! The combination of endurance and speed had me hooked. 

At age 17, I decided to become a triathlete. I competed in Olympic-distance triathlons, duathlons, 10Ks, and the occasional half-marathon. As a self-coached athlete, I had a basic understanding of training derived from books and magazines. And therein was the problem. I didn’t get the balance of rest and recovery right, let alone an intelligent training progression. In my mind, more was better. Needless to say, I was constantly burned out, battling frequent colds and injuries. 

Hence, in my 20s, I turned my back on endurance training in favor of serious strength training and Muay Thai. I continued the basic ‘fitness running’ all ring sport athletes engage in but didn’t compete. 

In my 30s, a shoulder injury inspired me to come back to the sport of running. That focus—and improved training methodology—massively increased my running performance, leading to faster race results (and more awards) than I dreamed possible.

I also enjoyed switching between different race distances. From the 400m sprint to the marathon, I have raced it all over the years. That’s the beauty of being an amateur athlete—not being locked into a particular race distance. 

But what I love most about running is that it is measurable. With a running smartwatch, I can put a number on my VO2 max, lactate threshold, and maximal speed. The finer details require some lab equipment, but they’re quantifiable. Better training leads to faster race results. Therefore, every race informs me whether my training was effective—in minutes and seconds.